It's correct, publishing rights for some countries are still in discussion.
The majority of the territory Kakao Games will serve has been agreed on, but please understand that we can only announce details after having everything confirmed.

To give you some inside; there is no haggling going on about who gets the most countries. BH and Kakao Games just want to be sure to find the most sensible solution considering factors like time zone, language, cultural background and others.

It's correct, publishing rights for some countries are still in discussion.
The majority of the territory Kakao Games will serve has been agreed on, but please understand that we can only announce details after having everything confirmed.

To give you some inside; there is no haggling going on about who gets the most countries. BH and Kakao Games just want to be sure to find the most sensible solution considering factors like time zone, language, cultural background and others.

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I'm personally quite concerned about this. I have friends in countries such as Isreal, and we were wanting to play this game together since we were unable to play Black Desert together. It's one of our bigger concerns, compared to other 'less serious' things. IP blocks aren't fun for anybody.

i dont mind region locking but the problem is the release date imo. If the game is released Eu/US etc in one swoop. then region locking i dont mind. if for instance it came out in US and EU 4 months later. i would be fuming.

It is for me, so speak for yourself. It gives me fun and a lot of ppl who wants quality over quantity.

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I was talking more about a case of the consumer and the product rather than specific individuals such as yourself. It is bad for the product because they lose potential revenue, it's bad for the consumer because they may not be able to play the game. It's a loss/loss. They do not need to localise for these other regions but allowing everyone to access your website and your game opens you up to new ways to gain revenue, along with players who may support your company through future products and games.

i dont mind region locking but the problem is the release date imo. If the game is released Eu/US etc in one swoop. then region locking i dont mind. if for instance it came out in US and EU 4 months later. i would be fuming.

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I am a bit confused by your reasoning... the publisher Kakao is European based, so why on earth would an EU company release in NA first? And I don't quite understand how this would effect your position on region locking. As Kakao already have the rights to publish in NA and western Europe, c.f. Kakao regions for BDO. The issue is for people in Russia, Turkey, Israel etc

It is bad for the product because they lose potential revenue, it's bad for the consumer because they may not be able to play the game. It's a loss/loss.

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That.... is so wrong. You dont realy know how business work, right? They are so many companies in the world that dont sell their products or services around the world... and they do it on purpose. Every player is a cost for company. The goal for company is to lower the cost as much as its possible (reasonably... or not). Every player outside the standard cost group is a bigger cost for company - additional technical resources, additional licences etc. Comparing to amount of ppl outside EU (for example) the costs are to big. The same way is with F2P players. They are only cost for them, someone else has to pay for their entertainment (an here comes P2W).

But there is more.... like i said - i dont want to play with ppl outside EU.... its about quality of gaming. I dont want to play with ppl with ms 200,300,500 etc. Especially when we're talking about a little bit more intense gaming (semi-hc pvp or pve). If there wont be any IP block and there will be some pvp guild outside EU then is likely that my guild will quit this game... and some other guilds too. So, Kakao will replace low cost player with high cost players. It is a total bullshit from buisness point of view. And, the outside guild will not have ay chance against EU players in semi-hc/hc playing.

A lot of games have problems even inside the NA... players from east coast have problems with ms on servers located on west coast. This problem is so common, can't imagine why You can't understand this.

It is only about quality of gaming (I dont even talk about russian players ). For casual players, Yes, maby it doesn't matter but for others - it does. I've seen this problem many times and i dont want this **** again. Without IP block, there will be lot of guilds and players who will consider to even not playing this game at all (me and lot of my friends for example).

I'm from Brazil.
For me IP Block is useless.
Black Desert It had IP Block and we played without problem using VPN.

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I don't pay extra money for a vpn really and it is not always guarantee that you will play with good ping as using vpn while doing pvp in mass pvp or while doing pve in some cases etc. really... If thy make IP block for this mmorpg too then I don't play the AIR at all with my guild as what I did or what we did as a guild for Black Desert Online that at that time, I will continue to play Tera Online or Archeage again, that's simple.

That just a thought out of the topic but I'm worry it can ends with restrictions on the published content too (we see that with all BDO content from KR that is unavailable in UE). They say they will not but... we are used to be deceived by editors. I think about the RGPD that can ends like a double edged sword for UE players. If only I could work in asia rather than in UE...

PS : After checking a little, if games in UE ends with restricted contents (rather than "censored"), it is because of german market, the USK approval...

Thank you for moving this discussion to a new thread, allow me to clarify some things.

The name of this company is Kakao Games, not Daum, this would be similar to me calling you StormTrooper.

Which regions we service is defined by a contract between Kakao and Bluehole, it is not something that Kakao can simply change on their own.

The choice of who publishes in what regions belongs to the Developer (Bluehole), as they create the game and own the intellectual rights to it, they get to decide where their game is sold.

This is not discrimination, it has nothing to do with race, age, gender, or any other such factor. The divide is to allow each region to have better insight and flexibility to service said region and they have to take into account the various laws that govern different regions of the planet.

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this is discrimination indeed, my dear. what you say here is meaningless with no root. you just have to agree, kakao games did it with BDO and does it with AIR as well. you just are just not interested in these regions and getting license or whatever the heck you need for it, does not give you enough profit. if you're looking for a reason, I'm upset about, feel free to read this topic, I've made few months ago.

That just a thought out of the topic but I'm worry it can ends with restrictions on the published content too (we see that with all BDO content from KR that is unavailable in UE). They say they will not but... we are used to be deceived by editors. I think about the RGPD that can ends like a double edged sword for UE players. If only I could work in asia rather than in UE...

PS : After checking a little, if games in UE ends with restricted contents (rather than "censored"), it is because of german market, the USK approval...

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I play in NA servers from EU. The ping is very high, but I prefer this, from playing in a Gameforge game. Maybe Bluehole can give us a vpn only to use in the game, for us to play with our US, Australians, Filipinos, Brasialians. That would make this a global game.

This is both false and true. Editor and publisher are two differents matters. To have the right to publish, KakaoGames get a licence from Bluehole or PearlAbyss in the interest of both parts. BUT the agreement/approval of publishing is given by the national organizations (like USK for Germany) by request of KakaoGames (which must proove an existing agreement with the editor, then Bluehole, PearlAbyss).

That's the problem. The political censorship comes from the provider of the agreements for UE (probably one for each country). KakaoGames can go more far than needed to be sure to get the agreement but the real matter is "political" censorship in UE (Which is not "that" free because of all those whiny "groups of people" in UE -or NA-, unfortunatly...).

Considering FFXIV and BDO are both PEGI 16, I tend to think KakaoGames is going more far than needed with self-restrictions. Probably because BDO is more photorealistic. Western countries are really boring with censorship because none has the same limits. In the end, the problem is where the servers are based (most of time Germany for UE, here the USK censorship matters).